Indonesia has potential to become world biofuel producer

Indonesia, along with Brazil, has the potential to become a world bio-fuel producer, an Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) leader said.

Indonesia had a vast land territory, a great number of workers, a good domestic and international market that could support its efforts to develop ethanol production and jatropha curcas plantations, Siswono Yudohusodo, chairman of HKTI`s advisory board, said here Saturday.

"What is needed is a government policy which would enable villagers in rural areas to produce alternative energy," he said.

The former transmigration minister said that so far farmers only used jatroph curcas as fence plants for house yards and rice fields.

Siswono said that based on a research, alternative energy that could be produced from Jatropha curcas has quality equal to diesel oil. The research was done by the Bandung-based Institute of Technology (ITB) in cooperation with the Mitsubishi Research Institute.

In 2006, a team has also conducted a test on the use of jatropha curcas oil as fuel for motor vehicles and it found that this alternative energy was able to support a trip of more than 3,000 km from Atambua in East Nusa Tenggara province to Jakarta.

Siswono, who is also former HKTI chairman said that jatropha curcas nuts had 30 to 35 percent oil content so that each three kgs of nuts are able to yield one liter of bio-diesel.

Seen from the economic aspect, he said, the price of bio-diesel which was produced from jatropha cucas nuts was about Rp4,500 per liter, cheaper than the rice of diesel oil and premium gasoline.